About Shop Class for Democracy
It's clear that our democracy is imperiled by our toxic politics. IDEA believes the way to better politics is developing a citizenry with the ability to self-govern. The capacity for true self-governance involves the ability to acquire and evaluate information, the skills to dialogue across difference and make deliberative decisions together, and commitment to democratic values, institutions and practices. Simply educating students to understand and participate in our current dysfunctional modes of politics will only perpetuate our ongoing crisis– we must prioritize the development of the skills necessary for self-governance, i.e. “education for citizenship,” to all University students as early and comprehensively as possible. Education for citizenship requires something much more like a "shop class" for democracy, where students can learn the skills necessary for self-governance through practice.
As a part of this practice, IDEA organizes Common Ground for Action (CGA) deliberative online forums. CGA is a simple, yet sophisticated, online platform that allows citizens to deliberate together about various policies regarding political issues, weigh tradeoffs, and see where they have common ground. Throughout these 90-minute small-group deliberations, participants are able to visually see how their original perspectives shift relative to others, allowing them a powerful tool to see where they do (and don’t) align with other group members. CGA forums are a valuable experience not only because they provide a wealth of data on not only what policies constituents do or do not support, but why.
Why Shop Class for Democracy?
Shop Class for Democracy deliberative forums build students’ skills in critical thinking, dialoging across difference, and deliberative decision-making and promote stronger commitment to democratic values and institutions. IDEA offers this experience especially to all first-year students, but is also building the infrastructure among departments and staff to extend deliberative discussion to a diverse array of subjects – not just political science. Students will have the power to engage in deliberative discussions on their own issues, expanding their comprehension in a multi-dimensional manner.
First Year Success Series
The entire incoming first-year class is invited to participate in deliberative forums on varying topics that are aimed at dialoging across differences and promoting a stronger commitment to democratic values and institutions. Students can sign-up to participate in a deliberative forum on the First Year Success Series event calendar. The groups for these discussions will be limited to about 12-15 participants to accentuate the impacts of personal discussion and deliberation. They will be conducted using the Common Ground for Action platform.
Want to Participate?
First-year students who want to try a deliberative forum are encouraged to sign up. We will add the link once it is active for Autumn semester 2024 and you can register for the different forum opportunities via the First Year Success Series website.
We are also able to coordinate CGA forums for any group on campus including Student Life, faculty, and resident advisors. If you are interested, please contact Adam Duffy by email at duffy.299@osu.edu
See IDEA's Framework for Campus Deliberation
IDEA is committed to academic freedom and excellence as well as to the promotion of an inclusive, respectful campus. There are numerous ways of achieving this goal -- however, each approach has unique consequences and tradeoffs to consider. IDEA's Framework for Campus Deliberation puts these different approaches, and their consequences, into one convenient format.